Ramones

Essential Albums

  • Road to Ruin
    Road to Ruin

    In terms of music, lyrics, and overall attitude, the first three Ramones albums were barely distinguishable from one another. But on 1978’s Road to Ruin, the group’s fourth record, the differences are more obvious: There are acoustic guitars, ballads, and even a few guitar solos (which had largely been stigmatized as extraneous by punk rockers). And while the band had always kept things under three minutes, Road to Ruin has songs that go long—relatively speaking: “I Wanted Everything” clocks in at 3:18, and “Questioningly” goes on for 3:21 (or about as long as an ELP keyboard solo). Throughout Road to Ruin, the Ramones sound almost like a normal late-1970s rock band. One reason for that change was the departure of Tommy Ramone, the band’s original drummer, and a key architect of the band’s sound. He stayed on as a producer under his birth surname, T. Erdelyi, but was replaced on the kit by Marky Ramone, formerly of Richard Hell and the Voidoids. Marky was a more experienced drummer, adding more dynamics to the band’s rhythm section—including fills, and a cymbal sound he likened to broken glass—while perpetuating the band’s relentless, rapid eighth-note beat. Everything the Ramones sang about—whether it was eating chicken vindaloo, being bored, or engaging in crazy antics—was true to life, an approach that holds strong on Road to Ruin. The tenderness in Joey Ramone’s voice never undercuts the sneering negativity in some of the album’s darker songs, including “I Don’t Want You” and the rampaging “I’m Against It.” Tommy Ramone once referred to his bandmates as “dangerous people,” and the punk rock outbursts on Road to Ruin modulate reckless thoughts and impulses into perfect, short songs. Still, the band does slow down for a moment, with the teary Dee Dee Ramone ballad “Questioningly” featuring twangy guitar from album co-producer Ed Stasium. (Guitarist Johnny Ramone didn’t like the song, and likened it to the Eagles—perhaps the biggest insult at his disposal). Because the Ramones got little radio airplay, the band toured frequently, in order to remain solvent. This was tough on Joey, who endured several health issues, including obsessive-compulsive disorder (which made things tough on his bandmates, too). While he was inhaling steam to soothe a sore throat, Joey burned himself, which inspired Road to Ruin’s classic “I Wanna Be Sedated” (“Put me in a wheelchair, get me to the show/Hurry, hurry, hurry, before I go loco”). The song even includes a guitar solo—kind of—from Johnny, who plays the same note over and over. If it’s the right note, you don’t need more than one.

  • Rocket to Russia
    Rocket to Russia

    All four members of the Ramones were songwriters, which explains why the group was so prolific in its early years, releasing five albums between 1976 and 1980. And though the band members didn’t labor over their songs—some of which didn’t even have bridges—what they lacked in patience they made up for in power and playfulness. Those skills paid off with 1977’s Rocket to Russia, the Ramones’ third effort—and a record Rolling Stone described as “possibly the funniest rock album ever made.” As with the group’s previous releases, Rocket to Russia finds dark punchlines by embracing mental instability: The hook in “Teenage Lobotomy” is mostly singer Joey Ramone chanting “Luh-bah-tuh-MEE” over and over, while the joyful “Cretin Hop”—which has been covered by Metallica and Masters of Reality—benefits from Joey’s elastic, nasal phrasing of the word “cretin,” which mixes pride and horror. (Alas, the Cretin Hop failed to become a nationwide dance craze.) Elsewhere on Rocket to Russia, “We’re a Happy Family” functions as a cartoonish spin on An American Family, the groundbreaking 1973 PBS documentary series that exposed the complicated life of an affluent, dissolute California clan. The song features one of the band’s best-ever rhyming schemes—one that includes “Queens,” “beans,” “magazines,” and “Thorazines”—while the chorus ends with a revelation that won’t make the family Christmas card: “Daddy likes men.” In addition to the jokier numbers, Rocket to Russia features two all-time Ramones classics: “Chewing out a rhythm on my bubble gum,” Joey sings on “Rockaway Beach,” a nearly poetic song written by bassist Dee Dee Ramone. It’s an ecstatic adventure full of genuine longing for a dilapidated beach in the Ramones’ hometown of Queens, New York, where water erosion had forced the city to close 13 blocks of seashore. The song has the same spirit as The Beach Boys’ “Surfin’ U.S.A.,” but in place of the unsoiled Pacific Ocean, it celebrates an area that one New York City official described a “natural disaster area.” (“Rockaway Beach” didn’t achieve Beach Boys-like success, but it did land the Ramones on Billboard’s Hot 100.) Joey Ramone had written “Sheena is a Punk Rocker”—which had appeared on some pressings of the group’s previous album, Leave Home—about the transformation of a city girl from a Studio 54-type into someone who likes hard, fast punk music, and the song has a persuasive, spring-loaded energy to it. On Rocket to Russia, even negative songs like the power-chord-loaded “I Don’t Care” and “I Wanna Be Well” are loads of fun. Guitarist Johnny Ramone once called this the best Ramones album—and who are we to argue?

  • Ramones
    Ramones

    Sure, there were plenty of antecedents to their music, including The Stooges, a Detroit band of hooligans whom the Ramones loved. But it was the four misfits from Queens, New York, who formalized the sound of punk rock, right down to song lengths and onstage attire. Even all these years later, punk exists in its original, unevolved form, played by thousands of bands worldwide, because there’s no simpler or more democratic way to express strong feelings—especially negative ones. The Sex Pistols are often credited as the fathers of punk, but their debut album came out a few weeks before the third Ramones album. Johnny Ramone played a $50 Mosrite guitar on this earth-shaking album, which was recorded for only $6,500—an amount Fleetwood Mac might have routinely spent on a catered lunch. The Ramones were minimalists who created an entire world out of just a few chords and one or two ideas. They played like they were in a hurry: a typical set in 1976 included 20 songs, which the band sped through in less than 40 minutes. They didn’t write songs about girls because, Johnny later said, they didn’t really have any. Instead, in the manner of Pop Art painters like Andy Warhol and Richard Hamilton, they made art out of the commonplace events in their lives. The songs on Ramones are dark and antisocial, but usually with a knowing sense of humor. “Beat on the Brat” is about kids who behave badly, “Now I Wanna Sniff Some Glue” is about getting high, and “53rd & 3rd,” an autobiographical song by Dee Dee Ramone, the band’s most prolific songwriter, is about working as a male prostitute. “I’m tryin’ to turn a trick,” Joey Ramone sings in his charming British-by-way-of-Queens accent. One of the band’s most prominent influences was B movies; there’s even a Texas Chainsaw Massacre reference in “Chain Saw.” The debut album also shows off a little of the band’s romantic streak, via a cover of “Let’s Dance,” a 1962 hit for Chris Montez, and “I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend,” written by drummer and co-producer Tommy Ramone. It’s the album’s slowest song—calling it a ballad would be an exaggeration—and, while not quite Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, it incorporates some different sounds via 12-string guitar, glockenspiel, and tubular bells. One thing that distinguishes the Ramones from the punk bands that followed them is their genuine love of (and occasional facility with) melody. They admired lots of 1960s groups, from the Beach Boys to the Shirelles, and they thought every song on their debut album was a potential hit single, even though they sounded nothing like the biggest rock bands of 1976—most notably Queen, the Eagles, and Boston. The Ramones thought they were about to become the most popular band in the world. They didn’t, but instead they became something better than that: one of the most influential bands in the world.

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About Ramones

It’s not hyperbolic to say that punk’s initial wave began with Ramones. Clad in black leather jackets and blue jeans, the Queens, NY, band threw out snotty slogans (“Gabba gabba hey!”) while putting a tougher, faster spin on melodic ’60s garage rock and the airtight arrangements of girl-group pop. Formed in 1974, the faux-fraternal quartet—lead singer Joey Ramone, bassist Dee Dee Ramone, guitarist Johnny Ramone, and drummer Tommy Ramone, all adopting a common last name—honed a ferocious live show as one of the house bands at the gritty New York City club CBGB. This led to a deal with Sire Records and a 1976 self-titled LP full of punk pogos (“Blitzkrieg Bop”) and gender-flipped ’50s rock homages (“I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend”). Although Ramones sometimes drew on their own lives for inspiration—“I Wanna Be Sedated” was inspired by road ennui—they found a groove writing songs about teenage outcasts and adolescent angst; “We’re a Happy Family” describes a turbulent home life, while other tunes star vivid rebels named Sheena, Suzy, and Judy. As the years progressed, Ramones embraced a broader sonic palette (the metallic “Psycho Therapy,” a surf-rockin’ “California Sun”) and deeper lyrics: 1980’s “Do You Remember Rock ’N’ Roll Radio?” name-checked early musical icons Alan Freed and Jerry Lee Lewis yet resisted the urge toward misty-eyed nostalgia, while 1981’s “The KKK Took My Baby Away” touched on racism’s pernicious undercurrents. Ramones continued touring and recording steadily into the ’90s but broke up after taking a victory lap on the 1996 Lollapalooza tour. Although the band never reunited—all four original Ramones have since died—their legacy is secure. Not only can their world-famous Arturo Vega-designed logo be seen on T-shirts worn by grandmas and toddlers alike, but their short, sharp songs and intimidating look remain a modern punk blueprint.

ORIGIN
Queens, NY, United States
FORMED
January 1974
GENRE
Punk

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